Somebody I Used to Know
by GabberJabber
Summary: Dick dreamt about someone named Wally last night.


[Wally disappears into the Speed Force and Dick from the reboot feels the ramifications]

I.

The smell of freshly-cut grass and gasoline saturated the air, leaning back on the sun warmed swinging chair, Dick listened to Wally's grunts and grumblings, the lawnmower sputtering to life under his hand.

"You know you could help me," Wally called over the roar of the machine. Neck stretched out and feet propped up on the chair's arm, Dick contemplates pretending he couldn't hear him.

"Why don't you just speed through it?" he says instead, watching his friend wrestle the mower around a tree.

"I can't, I go too fast for the mower to keep up and the grass ends up patchy."

Dick hums closing his eyes, overhead the chains tying the chair to the patio roof squeak weakly. "Sucks for you, dude."

Wally doesn't answer, the lawnmower churns sluggishly as it hits the base of the tree and goes over a root.

A quiet breeze rustles the damp bangs on his forehead, something sounds different. Listening intently he looks for the missing sound. Dick can't hear Wally's quiet complaining over the motor anymore, "Dude? You're just going to ignore me?"

No answer.

Opening his eyes, Dick blinks into the sunlight streaming through his glasses. The lawnmower is stuck at the base of the tree, throwing dirt as it swivels around the roots.

Wally is gone.

_Dick dreamt of someone named Wally last night._

II.

The blue glare from the computer screen reflected off Robin's red eyes, bloodshot with deep bags hanging underneath. The click click tapping of the keyboard the only sound in the empty cave.

Rubbing his eyes he brushes the bangs from his face and grunts in annoyance when the greased hairs fall back into his eyes. Running a hand through his hair again he's half disgusted half pleased when it stays spayed out over his forehead.

Not in Moscow, not in Frankfurt, not in Paris. He had checked through most of Europe, hacking into several government satellites to check. Flash hadn't stopped running since Wally disappeared; he covered all of the US in a week, North America in two, and South America in a month.

_He knows that Wally is a redhead. In his journal next to his bed he jots this down as important information, next to the colors red and yellow. Alfred is starting to get worried, and Tim keeps sending him cryptic texts from Europe all amounting to the same message; do I need to come home? Even Damian is noticing._

III.

Two months later Batman closes Wally's case. Halfway to Africa, Barry stops and forgets why he's running.

Robin keeps looking.

_Wally is his best friend._

Dick finally hits his growth spurt, he's as tall as Wally was when he went missing.

_Wally West doesn't exist, never has. Iris West don't exist. Barry Allen is not married, and has no nephews. Still Nightwing looks for Wally. Bruce, back from the dead, doesn't try to stop him; he understands the dark grasp an all consuming mission has on the spirit. _

IV.

Wally's notes don't make any sense. The physics all matches up except for an unknown variable that is in all the equations. Pressure builds behind his eyes, the headache from staring at the same wrinkled pages, faded and tattered from continuous handling knocks inside his head.

The scream that had been building inside of him since Wally went missing stirs in his chest. Grunting angrily he crumples the pages and throws them away. Whatever science project Wally had been experimenting with Dick can't figure it out, face puffy from lack of sleep, his cheek redden in anger.

He scoops the ball of papers out of the trash before leaving.

_Memories flash in his brain like light bulbs. Playing rooftop tag with Wally, sharing ice cream with Wally, putting aloe on Wally's sun burnt shoulders. Holding Wally's bigger sweaty hand, soft slow kisses, the taste of salt and grease under his mouth; Wally, Wally Wally._

_He isn't dreaming. _

V.

Howling wind whips at his uniform, pulling his cape tight around his throat. Bullets of rain run down his face, stinging his cheeks, weighting down his hair. Atop the Wayne Co. tower, he can see all of Gotham. The constant layer of smog that hovers over the city bleeds as the sky cries. This high up in the air, the wind steals the breath form his lungs, the constant pressure in his chest increasing, it feels like dying, a decadent howl, swelling and deflating rapidly, oscillating in the chamber of his chest. Wonders if Wally is de-

Opening his mouth he screams into the storm, thunder crashes overhead, drowning out his voice.

"WALLY WEST YOU JERK! WHERE ARE YOU?"

_Wally has green eyes. The prettiest color Dick has ever seen, little flecks of amber and jade around the iris that shine like gold in the sun._

VI.

Scribbled in the corner of the last page in Wally's notebook are two words. Faded to near invisibility from constantly running his thumb over and over the lead, trying to absorb the meaning behind it. What had Wally done? What had he found out?

Speed Force

_Bruce backhands him across the face, a tooth falls out. When he gets up he knows Wally is Kid Flash._

VII.

He dreamt of equations last night.

_He dreamt of equations last night. _

The missing variable.

_A new variable._

VIII.

Three months, twenty-eight days, seventeen hours, thirty-one minutes and six seconds later, Wally West pops back into existence.

_Three months, twenty-eight days, seventeen hours, thirty-one minutes and six seconds later, Wally West is born to Mary and Rudolph West in Central City, Kansas. _

Three months, twenty-eight days, seventeen hours, thirty-one minutes and seven seconds later, Dick Grayson punches Wally West in the face.

_Three months, twenty-eight days, seventeen hours, thirty-one minutes and seven seconds later, Dick Grayson is there for the birth of Wally West. _


End file.
